After a yearlong hiatus, we were geared up and ready to welcome Class 26 to their first week of activities – team building and the retreat in Wenatchee. However, due to the rising case rate of Covid-19 and the Delta variant in our community, the Executive Board made the difficult decision to delay Class 26 to the 2022 – 2023 program year.
Several factors led us to the final decision.
After receiving feedback and questions from multiple class members, we realized the need to quickly implement multiple COVID mitigation strategies to minimize class and volunteers’ exposure.
Communicating with leadership facilitator/trainer Paul Casey, we realized we did not have the time to radically alter the team building or the class retreat to Wenatchee to accommodate the valid concerns of the incoming class. Combined with our rapidly increasing case counts, and the unknown requirements that could come from the State over the program year, we found ourselves in an untenable position.
Class Director Kyle Cox reached out to Class 26 asking them to complete a survey measuring their level of comfort on multiple dimensions including: masking, interacting/moving in close quarters with others, eating meals together, rooming together, traveling together to and from Wenatchee, being outside given current and predicted air quality, whether a vaccination requirement would impact their decision to participate, and, if unvaccinated, whether they would be willing to be vaccinated in order to participate. All but one class member completed this survey. The results show significant concern from members of the class on many of these safety dimensions. Thankfully, 100% of Class 26 members expressed interest in participating next year, should we delay the program.
We greatly appreciate our community . This is not a decision any of us wanted to make, but given the reality of the situation, it was the right decision for our organization.
In service,
-The LTC Executive Board